{"id":358634,"date":"2026-04-01T13:39:30","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T13:39:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/358634\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T13:39:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T13:39:30","slug":"whanganui-resident-jack-mitchell-anyon-calls-for-the-removal-of-caged-council-plants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/358634\/","title":{"rendered":"Whanganui resident Jack Mitchell-Anyon calls for the removal of caged council plants"},"content":{"rendered":"

While they were not cheap, they did not mind salt and did not \u201cbrown out\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we can use some of the amazing gardeners we have, like Clive Higgie<\/a>, Colin Ogle, Ivan Vostinar<\/a>, Simone Summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we redo this, we should utilise these people. They are like your Auckland consultant but free.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the council\u2019s 2016 street tree strategy, it \u201cstrives to maintain the integrity of Whanganui\u2019s treescape for future generations while allowing the flexibility for necessary tree removal and replacement\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mitchell-Anyon said street trees aligned with the council\u2019s climate change policy and with Whanganui\u2019s Unesco City of Design status<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just about human design, it\u2019s also about gardening,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSparse, empty streets don\u2019t spell City of Design to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Councillor Rob Vinsen said the cages were installed because the trees were being vandalised.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was supposed to be double what is there but it was stopped,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re talking about a new planting programme, give some thought to how those trees are going to be protected.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JackJack Mitchell-Anyon says planting along Rangiora St has not been vandalised because it was community-led. Photo \/ Phil Thomsen<\/p>\n

Mitchell-Anyon said efforts should not be reduced because of vandalism fears.<\/p>\n

He said Rangiora St, which intersects with Cornfoot St and has been planted with aloes and palms<\/a>, had not been vandalised because it was community-led.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you involve the community, they\u2019ll be more interested.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso, it\u2019s just beautiful, because it was done by a real gardener. People love it so they don\u2019t vandalise it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said other replacement options for the griselinias were oleanders or dracaenas (dragon tree). <\/p>\n

The project required \u201ca bit of buy-in\u201d from the council.<\/p>\n

\u201cStreet trees are very low-maintenance but, for the first part of their lives, they need help,\u201d Mitchell-Anyon said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to water it through summer, you\u2019ve got to feed it a little bit and mulch it to retain moisture.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter that, you can pretty much walk away and reap the rewards for years and years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mike Tweed is a multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily Whanganui District Council.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While they were not cheap, they did not mind salt and did not \u201cbrown out\u201d, he said. \u201cI…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358635,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1443,46399,189336,1559,115,167498,5205,273,2082,22259,189335,111,139,69,1118,5301,12062,10710,147,17294,223,10419,1883],"class_list":["post-358634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-about","tag-beachside","tag-caged","tag-called","tag-calls","tag-castlecliff","tag-council","tag-environment","tag-for","tag-jack","tag-mitchellanyon","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-plants","tag-removal","tag-resident","tag-science","tag-suburb","tag-the","tag-trees","tag-whanganui"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}